God of War Secret Found Using Collector's Edition Map

By Anthony Taormina 24 May 2018

While God of War is largely a straightforward adventure as far as its story and progression are concerned, developer Sony Santa Monica has apparently left some clues for players to decode should they wish. One such clue was recently discovered on the cloth map included in the game’s Collector’s Edition, and solving it has uncovered a unique item for any players in the game.

Things started to come together when a Reddit user called Aldroyd discovered a puzzle in the cloth map included with God of War’s Collector’s Edition. First, owners noticed that there were runes across the World Serpent, then they decoded those runes to get a pretty lengthy message, and then players were off trying to figure out what it all meant.

The message reads:

“The brilliant huldra blacksmiths Brok and Sindri travelled all around the lands of Midgard to create this great map for the giantess Faye a mysterious trasure was found at the space between them at the conclusion of their journey unfortunately for the brothers the treasure’s location was instantly forgotten Brok retraced his steps and blamed Sindri for losing the treasure Sindri retraced his own steps but clearly knew it was Brok’s fault they could not find it the trasure was never found and neither brother has spoken to the other either since”

“To Reveal the great treasure stand inside the golden circle and look straight ahead to tyrs temple now look to the left brazier look back to tyrs temple look to the right brazier and back to left brazier”

“Having just looked to the left brazier now look back straight ahead to tyrs temple again now look down to the floor then look up to the right brazier and then back to the left brazier and finally look to tyrs temple to reveal the forgotten treasure”

For a few hours players hypothesized about where the golden circle might be. A popular theory was that the golden circle was the Council of the Valkyries, the circular meeting area where players return the helmets of Valkyries they have defeated. Others thought it might be Tyr’s temple, since it is circular and the decorations are golden.

But eventually, one player, khanys on Reddit, discovered it was the Muspelheim Tower in the Lake of Nine. They input the steps from the riddle and a Realm Tear appeared.

For a full breakdown of where to stand and what to do, check out the video below:

Reaching into Realm Tear will return a grip for Kratos’ Leviathan Axe that is quite good. It might be somewhat of a spoiler to look at the clues early on in the game, but getting a hold of the pommel early on can also give players a leg up against enemies.

Dubbed the Forbidden Grip of the Ages, the Leviathan Axe pommel increases all of Kratos’ stats, which makes it versatile for any build, and it adds a concussive wave to the end of a light attack combo using the axe. Yes, eventually players will find pommels that are superior to this one, but for an early-game option (as early as players can get to the Muspelheim Realm Tower) it is not bad.

With this first discovery, players are now trying to dig through God of War to see if Sony Santa Monica has hidden any more clues in the game. As of yet, nothing else has been found, but the game is packed with content (read our review) so it’s easy to see there being more to find.